If you remember I (stupidly) had the dealership reflash the trucks computer with the latest update from FoMoCo.

Well after putting 200+ miles on the truck, here is what I have to report.

1) I used to have to pay attention to how much gas I gave the engine when pulling away from a stop light in 1st and 2nd gears. If not, I'd spin the rear tires as they went over the paint strip that runs from right to left across the intersection.

Now, even when I mat the pedal in 1st and 2nd nothing happens, I just pull away, no tire spin, not even on wet pavement. Nothing really happens until about 2700rpm. This truck had a whole lot more bottom end than that, even on the old spark plugs.

2) In top gear at 65mph I used to have decent passing power unless I really needed to downshift, now nothing. The speedometer just slowly sweeps across the face of the dial, ho hum.

3) When in top gear at 55mph there used to be this nice grumble as you applied more gas when going up hills. This sound was nice as the truck also used to git up and along quite well. Now nothing, no cool sound, just very lame acceleration.

The only positve note is that there is no more pinging coming from the engine under extremely (pedal matted) hard acceration. The flip side of that is, she doesn't move out at all like she used to.

I suspect they adjusted how much advance the timeing is going to have. As well as the speed with which the throttle plate opens with respect to how much pedal you've given it.

I called the dealership and they say there is no way they can get my truck back to the original stock programming. I wasn't told this was permanent, so naturally I'm pretty pissed off to say the least. The only thing they did tell me was that it would take 200-300 miles before the computer relearned my driving habits. OK, so I've driven it 200+ miles so far and I guess I have another 100 or so to go, we'll see.

Now for my question to Mike at 5Star, have you heard of the reflashes or updates causing a reduction in power over the power band on these engines? Will your and can your program over come these issues? I really want my old truck back. A new set of plugs, a new coil, and a new fuel filter should not have caused this problem. My only thoughts are the updates I foolishly paid for w/o asking any quesitons.

Enjoy,
RustyFuryIII

 

Hi rustyfuryiii
Sorry to hear of your issues with the Ford reflash. I am pretty sure we can get your old truck back with proper tuning and the X3 flash unit. Your truck being on 06 has the drive by wire and I would bet the new flash has reduced the Driver Demand tables reducing torque out put. Do you know the strategy or PCM code the dealership reflashed to?

Let me know
thanks
Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Thanks for getting back to me so quick. No, I don't know the strategy they used or the code. I do have the receipt, and there are numbers associated with the line item referencing the flash.

When I get home tonight, I'll pull it out and see if there's anything of use. On a side note, what am I looking for? I have no problem typing out everything for that line item if it helps.

If that doesn't help, I do know two of the techs at the shop pretty well, perhaps they can hook me up with that info.

If they can't/won't help me out, is there another way to get this info?

RustyFuryIII

 

Here's a website from motorcraftservice.com, at the bottom is a link to "latest calibration information in Excel". That'll tell you what they might have put in there, as the "latest and greatest".

http://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdi...id=calibration

I'd attach it, but can't attach spreadsheets.

 

Some dealers will reflash the truck without saying anything. Part of the reason I never took my truck to the dealer for anything. If you do get a tuner tell the dealer not to reflash your truck when you go in for service.

Would be nice to have a lockable plug to put over the OBDII port.

 

Hi Krewat,

Thanks for the link, it didn't work but I was able to go to www.motorcraftservice.com , and root around until I found what you were talking about. They have 339 listings/updates for my model year truck and the receipt I have does not have anything that matches up. So, I called an old neighbor/friend who works at Ford and he is going to hook up his shop computer to my truck and read what the latest and greatest updates were that they installed. I should have more info by weeks end.

Thank you again,
RustyFuryIII

 

One other thought is to pull your pcm out and look at the sticker of what it used to be.. Most dealerships do not put a new sticker of the new PCM on the PCM.. this way we can see what the old one was and compare it to the new one. Just let me know. Give me a shout or email anytime that you have that info.

thanks
Mike

 

Thanks Mike, I appreciate your help. I really want my truck back. I can definitely tell a difference. It used to begin to pull hard at 2100rpm, now really nothing until around 2700rpm. Can't imagine why they'd do this to a vehicle that is supposed to tow/haul heavy loads. I just don't get it...

RustyFuryIII

 

If you complained about "pinging" I can see why they'd do it

 

There are other things that can be done to get rid of the pinging without pulling out a bunch of timing and killing performance of the truck.

 

I know that

But much like the "octane plug" in my '96 t-bird, and '97 cougar that removes WAY too much timing and makes it a dog, I wonder if they have the same thing on the F-series but in software?

I remember reading about it here years ago... not sure of it's veracity.

 

The earlier V10 has knock sensor under the intake manifold, dont know if the later models have that same set up. If it detects vibration[pinging] it retards the timing. I wonder if this is related to that.

 

I knew you did.

My guess is they have some different reflashes for different complaints.

 

Krewat,

No, I never complained about pinging. I knew how to deal with it. If the truck was driven very leisurely, say only shifting below 2300rpm constantly, then, she'd ping like a dog when you got on it. However, if you consistantly shifted gears between 2500rpm and 3000rpm, it would seldom ping when you got on it. The pinging was very brief at best, most of the time not at all.

I feel bad about what I've done. I was actually asked if I wanted the updates, and was told it would cost me $95 to do it. So, I said, "yes go ahead", even after they assured me the update would not turn the truck into a dog. And yes, I"ve paid for it... in two different ways. One, cash, the other,my V10 had been neutered!

Thanks for nothing Ford!!!

Still waiting for a break so I can get the updates read by a friend.

Enjoy,
RustyFuryIII

 

Hi rustyfuryiii

Dont beat yourself up about it. Its not your fault. It happens sometimes. Ford just needs a way to go back if the customer does not like the newer strategies. It really should not be a problem getting your truck back to how you like it and it actually may be better than it was with no pinging to boot... We most likely can even make you a stock tune of the old PCM code flash you had before the Ford flash.

Mike